Frédéric Blasius (24 April 1758, in Lauterbourg – 1829, in Versailles) was a French violinist, clarinetist, conductor, and composer. Born Matthäus (French: Matthieu, Mathieu) Blasius, he used Frédéric as his pen name on his publications in Paris. Life and career Blasius was born in Lauterbourg, a town in the far northeast corner of France on the Rhineland border of Alsace. This frontier town had been fortified in the late 17th century by Louis XIV and had a large military presence, including many musicians. Both of his parents were German. His mother, a member of the Bugard family, was originally from the South Rhineland town of Schaidt, and his father, Johann Michael Blasius, was from Rastatt in Baden. His father earned his living primarily as a master tailor, but was also a musician and gave his son his first lessons. The young Blasius also received lessons from military musicians; a man referred to as Herr Stadt; and his two older brothers: Johann Peter (French: Pierre; born Lauterbourg, 2 September 1752), a violinist; and Franz Ignaz (French: Ignace; born Lauterbourg, 11 April 1755), a bassoonist. Both of his brothers also later worked in Paris. From 1780 to 1782 Blasius worked for the Bishop of Strasbourg, Prince Louis-René-Edouard de Rohan. The Cathedral Kapellmeister and Municipal Music Director of Strasbourg at that time was Franz Xaver Richter. Richter was a co-founder of the "Mannheim School" and a leading music theoretician. In 1784 Blasius went to Paris and in the spring made his debut as the violin soloist and conductor of one of his own concertos at a concert of the Concert spirituel. The performance received favourable reviews. Opéra-Comique Blasius joined the orchestra of the Opéra-Comique as a violinist in 1788, and became its concertmaster (and conductor) on 19 April 1790, a position he held up to 1801 and again from 1804 to 1816 (or 1818). During the earlier period, from 1788 to 1801, the Opéra-Comique underwent significant challenges. Up to that time the theatre had had a virtual monopoly on the performance of French comic opera in Paris, but in 1788 Marie Antoinette gave a license to open a new theatre to her hairdresser and wig-maker, Léonard Autié. Autié sold his license to the Italian violinist Giovanni Battista Viotti, who hired Luigi Cherubini to be the director of the new company. The two men recruited actors from the provinces and singers from Italy. At